
The Original Goodie Shop to buy Hot Cross Buns
And it’s chilly like a winter’s day…..20s today but tomorrow the high will be 50! my Minnesota friends are still in total winter.
At breakfast with friends. Celebrating Donna’s birthday. The light streamed in through the drinking glass, on to the table.
dc, the Florida guy, is a blog follower and frequent commenter. His words make me laugh out loud! He’s the one who doesn’t care for mushrooms. 😉
dc was inspired by the Minnesota Hotdish blog post (thank you Audrey!)
Here’s what happened after he read the collaborative post I did with the help of Audrey H of Minnesota Prairie Roots blog.
dc wrote
What is the difference between hotdish and casserole?
Definition: Casserole is the name of the dish used to cook with, whereas hot dish is the meal itself. Ingredients: Casseroles can contain any ingredients under the sun practically, where hot dishes have set ingredients they have to have.
“Today’s post was an inspiration. Photos to follow.”
Here are the photos dc sent me throughout the day
Thanks dc. That was fun. I know it tasted good.
Hotdish? I learned a lot about Hotdish from fellow blogger Audrey of Minnesota Prairie Roots Blog. And yes, turns out we call it a casserole around here. This blog post is a collaborative effort as Audrey lives in Minnesota. I wrote to her for enlightenment on Hotdish.
Audrey wrote when I inquired about Hotdish
Now, on to hotdish, which you likely know as “casseroles” in your area of the country. Same thing. Simply a mix of foods combined in one glass casserole dish or a 9 x 13 cake pan. Tater Tot Hotdish is Minnesota’s signature hotdish consisting of cooked hamburger mixed with a vegetable and a condensed creamed soup and then topped with tater tots and shredded cheddar cheese. I hope I got that right. I haven’t made it in years and actually seldom make hotdish, with the exception of Chicken Wild Rice Hotdish.Hotdish has always been a staple of church potlucks and family reunions in Minnesota. Easy to make. Serves a lot. And everyone loves a good hotdish. My mom always made one with hamburger, noodles and tomato juice with cheese stirred in. It was a favorite growing up.In 2006, the Minnesota Historical Society Press even published a book, “Hot Dish Heaven–Classic Casseroles from Midwest Kitchens” by Ann L. Burckhardt. And, yes, our DC legislators hold an annual hot dish competition. You can purchase cookbook online by clicking link.
And guess what honor I received from Audrey?
“The State of Minnesota does hereby grant honorary residency to Ruth Ella Hendricks upon successful completion of the unofficial state culinary dish, Tater Tot Hotdish. Congratulations!
America’s Test Kitchen recipe for this Minnesota Hotdish was on the PBS channel the other night. Here is the link to the video from the episode. Although I don’t remember purchasing a single Tater Tot in my life, watching them put this Hotdish together made me think about making it. With just two of us in the house it seemed a good recipe to try on the larger family when I visited in Ohio. I used a 2 pound bag of Simple Truth Potato Puffs from their local Kroger grocery store. I saw the brand Tater Tots had cottonseed oil in them and I thought that can’t be a good thing. I doubled the amount of the meat to 3 pounds. I omitted the mushrooms as several family members do not care for them but I read that if you needed to make if vegetarian you could use just mushrooms in the creamy bottom layer and no meat.
When I told my friend Joanne about the Hotdish she told me how growing up they didn’t have casseroles and she learned about them in high school cooking class. Her teenage son and his friends would devour her Tater Tot Green Bean Casserole when they lived in Omaha Nebraska. And after talking to her, I used the green beans instead of the frozen peas and corn in the original recipe.
My fellow blogger and friend Audrey of Minnesota Prairie Roots blog post says “Here’s a link to a story about small town Minnesota which includes a photo of a sandwich board advertising Tater Tot Hotdish”
There is an event in Faribault Minnesota that sounds like a lot of fun
Audrey told me about the Flannel Formal
At the Faribault Flannel Formal last Saturday, a Best Lumberjack Hotdish Contest was part of the annual event attended by about 500, all called upon to dress in flannel (like Paul Bunyan).
And a Snowplow naming contest too? “…as I’m watching the news last evening, I was reminded of another recent hotdish “thing” in Minnesota, the naming of a snowplow as “Blader Tot Hotdish.” Here’s a blog post I wrote about this Minnesota Department of Transportation contest and winners”
You can see why I asked Audrey to help me with my HOTDISH blogpost. I could’t have done it without her.
What is pi? “pi—which is written as the Greek letter for p, or π—is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle”
If you want to know how pi originated click this Scientific American article
Rob this post is for you. Rob is a certified Pie Judge. Here’s a post of National Pie day in January 2012. Sorry I missed National Day Pie Day this year but now it’s Pi Day 3.14.
Did you know you can order Pi Day sock yarn? maybe for next year Fibernymph Dyeworks says “ all of our Pi Day colorways, the striping pattern is based on the numeric sequence of pi – 3.141592…, which is a non-repeating number. Thus, the stripe sequence does not repeat within the skein, and you will not be able to get a matching pair of socks (or anything) from a single skein. But if you’re a math geek, that’s part of the fun! We include a stitch marker affixed to the beginning of the sequence”
Pi Day at high school was celebrated in 2015
A distinct difference between eggplant and zucchini. I saw this display today in Ohio and was reminded of my blog title blunder from the other day. Zucchini in the Coffee Aisle- NOT
My teacher friend Jen S. stopped by for tea snd conversation after school, Thursday afternoon. Towards the end of our visit, she checked the time on her watch
Wow, I said. Now those are big and bold numerals.
Jen said she often looks at her watch and it’s 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55